The Power to Influence and to Protect: Interconnectedness of the Human Bodies among theVisayans and the Indigenous People

This paper presents interviews with Visayans found in Central Philippines and its indigenous people, the Ati, in order to discuss beliefs surrounding the human body. The belief on the energy (dungan among the Karay-a) of the human body to inflict sickness or pain to another body is dominant throughout the interviews, as well as religious rites officiated by specialists to heal and protect the ailing body from the debilitating effect of this energy. Urbanization fails to completely erode such traditional belief. This paper analyzes the role of a marginal indigenous people, the Ati, as provider of essential medicines to protect the human body from harm. This role cannot be undermined especially when one tries to make sense of how lowland Visayans practice animism simultaneous to their Catholic faith.

 

Keywords - Ati, Indigenous Knowledge, Medicinal Plants, Philippines